Social Learning Theories: What Makes An Offender Commit Crimes

One of the major questions asked within the Criminal Justice field is, what makes an offender commit crimes? Although we know there is no one distinct answer to this question, we have learned that there are certain factors can contribute to an individual becoming an offender. The broad theory that supports the idea of criminal behavior being learned is the Social Learning Theory. There are four distinct theories that fall underneath the umbrella of Social Learning Theories. These distinct theories are Differential Association Theory, Differential Anticipation Theory, Differential Reinforcement Theory, and Imitation Theory. Although all theories possess many similarities in answering this question, each theory does contain separate ideas that

Psychologist Albert Bandura integrated these two theories and came up with four requirements for learning: observation (environmental), retention (cognitive), reproduction (cognitive), and motivation (both). This integrative approach to learning was called social learning theory. Within this theory there is a combination of behavioral and cognitive theories of learning to provide more clarity to the wide range of learning experiences within the real world. First, learning is not purely behavioral, but rather it is a cognitive or thinking process that takes place in a social setting. Next, learning can occur by observing a behavior and by observing the consequences of the behavior. This is usually referred to as vicarious reinforcement. Next, learning involves observation, extraction of information from those observations, and making decisions based of the behavior. This is commonly referred to observational